Play Nice
by Mightily Mousey
Summary: Children are just funny sometimes. movieverse, "There Is" Series, prewar, Betaed by Okami Myrrhibis


Title: Play Nice

Author: SBX

Characters: Megatron, Optimus Prime, Barricade, Goldbug, Bumblebee, mention of Chromia, Ratchet

Pairings: Megatron/Optimus Prime friendship (for now :3)

Rating: G

Warnings: extreme cuteness

Disclaimer: No character used in this story belongs to me.

Summary: Children are just funny sometimes.

A/N: This was mostly inspired by one of the results obtained by somebody else from the random pairing generator. The prompt was Megatron/Optimus Prime/children. This isn't the type of response one would expect from such a prompt, but I wanted to make it fit in with my "Comfort Calling Late" timeline. That technically makes this a prequel, the first of many prequels and even sequels that'll eventually make up a series that doesn't have name yet. Any suggestions on that are welcome at any time. Thank you and have a nice day.

p.s. Yes, I made Goldbug a separate character from Bumblebee. This'll be important later, I promise.

* * *

It was routine to visit the youngling centers once ever ten Orns. It was also routine for Megatron to disappear to a quiet corner of the center to simply watch, rather than play with the sparklings and younglings like Optimus did. The youngest of their kind have always made the larger of the co-rulers a little nervous, being as small and fragile as they were. It hurt to see his closest friend pull away from the very beings he would die to protect, but any attempts to get him to change his ways were met with an almost sullen glare and complete silence.

None of the femmes that ran the youngling centers seemed to mind Megatron's aloofness, and the head of security for the centers, a small but competent mech named Barricade, went as far as to openly express his relief that the Lord High Protector was keeping his distance. Optimus would have taken offense if a helpful femme known as Chromia hadn't mentioned that Barricade was like that with all large and heavily armed mechs. While the smaller bot deeply respected Megatron as a leader, he couldn't afford to take chances with the safety of all those residing in the centers. Especially the little ones.

While Barricade still rubbed him the wrong way at times, Optimus couldn't help but respect his dedication to his job and his ease with dealing with the more rambunctious younglings and sparklings. Therefore, it was with some amusement that he watched the smaller mech try to dissuade a particularly small (and stubborn) sparkling from challenging Prime to a fight.

"No, Goldbug, you're too little," the head of security explained with the patient tone of one who has had to explain this concept before. The sparkling glared at him in sullen resentment. "Not little! Can take anyone," Goldbug declared defiantly. Barricade rolled his optics as he replied, "Yeah, yeah. Tell me that again when your capable of stringing together a proper sentence, runt."

Optimus chuckled as he looked around to see what sort of antics the other little ones were pursuing. He froze, not quite believing the information his optics were relaying to his processor.

He could do nothing but stare as the Lord High Protector approached him through the throngs of younglings with what appeared to be a sparkling clinging to his neck.

Barricade glanced up to see what had Prime so enthralled and heaved a long suffering sigh as he explained, "Ah, that'll be Bumblebee, Goldbug's spark twin. He tends to gravitate towards and latch onto larger mechs and nobody can quite figure out why." The tone of his voice said he wasn't particularly comfortable with the habit, either.

Megatron had reached them before Optimus could even think to reply. The little sparkling gazed at him curiously for a moment before burying his face in the larger mech's neck again. The two co-ruler's optics met at this. "I appear to have acquired a parasite. I suspect mind control capabilities. I should probably investigate further," Megatron commented, completely straight faced. But the glint of something…softer in his optics gave him away.

Later, Ratchet was more than a little baffled when Megatron and Barricade dragged a still laughing Prime into his med-bay to have a blown circuit replaced. He was also more than a little confused by the sparkling that seemed almost permanently attached to the Lord High Protector and the one trailing behind Barricade with a defensive air to him, but decided to deal with one mystery at a time.


End file.
